Word very slow opening Documents

[S.Howard]

Hi, im hopeing someone out there can help. A user has reported that
when they try to open certain word documents received via Outlook
2000, Word either takes forever to open them or doesnt open them at
all. This is only affecting 3 documents, all received from the same
source.

User pc setup as follows: Windows Xp Pro, P4 2.0ghz 512 mb ram,
logging onto Novell 5.11

Ive done the following:
Installed Word 2000 and 97
Applied all updates and service packs to Windows and Ms-Office
Checked Avg Anti Virus software and run full scan (The files sender
maybe using Norton but I cant be sure.)
Updated Novell WinXp client
Switche doff all file cache on the Novell client

I'm pretty sure it isnt the users system at fault as the files were
downloaded and transferred to another system which displayed the same
fault. Load times take between 30-60 seconds to open.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi, S,

No magic bullet, but some things to try...

1. Ask the documents' originator whether the copy of Word on the source
machine can open the documents properly. If not, the documents themselves
are damaged and need to be fixed. (See
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm.)

2. Ask the originator to zip the documents before attaching them to the
email. Extract the contents of the zip file to your hard drive before
opening. (Word documents are susceptible to mangling by some mail gateways.)

3. If #2 isn't possible, at least make sure you're saving the documents out
of Outlook before opening them, instead of working on a temp copy.

4. Make sure Outlook's Journaling is turned off (see part 3 of
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm).

5. If your antivirus package has an active or "live" scanning function,
disable it. Run a manual scan of the file before opening it, but don't let
the AV program do its scan-on-open thing.

6. Before opening the documents, go into Word's Tools > Options > General
and uncheck "Update automatic links at open", in case the documents link
back to files on the originator's PC or something in their network.